Trion’s Conspiracies and a Few Theories

Some cryptic Trion staff member posts have surfaced on the official RIFT forums this past week. A staff member by the forum name 3 3228466 787 is the main culprit, with posts that are intentionally cryptic, containing poetry, numerical codes, random pictures, and phrases. Fans of the game and forums have banded together in an attempt to muddle through the confusing posts, and figure out what the heck the folks at Trion are up to.

What do we know so far? Here is a summary of the posts, findings, possible theories, and reactions so far. I’ll try and keep this post updated with the latest information, so if you know of any new details, feel free to drop me a line. Special thanks to the awesome people on the official forums who helped come up with this information. It’s all interesting stuff!

The first cryptic aspect of this post was, of course, the poster’s name. By using a simple phone keypad code, players deduced the name translates to “3 FACTION PVP.” Interestingly enough, “3 FACTION RVR” also works. Either way, big hint.

Here’s the poem:

Nemo surdior est quam is qui non audiet

The voices echoed in chamber halls,
Through valleys wide and darkened den
The time has come for all to heed
For the flesh of Telara shall be rend

As an answer comes with great resound
The drums of war fill the bitter air
Three points the blade, but two edges bleed
Not merely one thrust for the bloody fare

The fog of war, blood bridle deep
The time is now, a chance to decide
Which song you sing, which promise you keep
To bear upon Death’s dear sweet bride

Growing seeds of domination born
All opposition shall give way
To an empire spanning from sea to sea
The iron Ram the only way

A promise given forever more
To conquer and to shed all fear
Never to rule, but born of war
The Lion’s vigil to protect those held dear.

The Raven’s consequence of a latter day,
Our destruction will meet no end
Telara is doomed by our ill born fate
Unless we continue to ascend.

The title, which is in Latin, translates to “No one is more deaf than he who will not listen.” The poem itself alludes to a war, two forms that shift into three, a trio of animals, and a decision that must be made in order to end the war. Later on, 3 3228466 787 went on to post a series of posts that contained pictures depicting various images in the poem: here, here, and here.

The first contained an image of a ram, lion, and raven, the second a blue lion’s paw, and the third a combination of the word “machine” (with an image of a machine) added to the word “born” (with an image of a newborn baby). The images depicted seem to emphasis the animals, and the concept of being “machine-born”, which is one of RIFT’s themes, mainly originating from the Defiant faction.

3 3228466 787 posted an amendment of sorts later in the thread, with this:

“Choices are the hinges of destiny.”
~ Pythagoras

…. To Protect

……. To Save

……… To Rule

What is your choice, Ascended?

This seems to emphasize the need to make a choice between three goals. Just by using the knowledge we already know about the factions, we can deduce that “to protect” probably means Guardians, “to save” means Defiant, and “to rule” represents this new third faction. This seems to make sense with the three animal symbols. Ravens have been seen as the Defiant symbol in early beta, and Guardians seem to fit under the lion by the wording of the poem (“The Lion’s vigil”), which would leave the ram to represent this new faction. All of this is pure speculation at this point, of course.

Players went on to theorize that the war described in the poem could allude to the coming of Crucia, which was then shot down by 3 3228466 787, who posted here, with the paw, using the same numerical code. The code, when translated, says, “Wrong guess” and “No Crucia”. Players then went back to the drawing board.

Coincidentally enough, on the very next day, last Friday, Trion announced a huge, new PvP feature being tested during a PTS event this coming week. The actual feature being tested hasn’t been announced, which is unusual for Trion. It’s as if they’re being intentionally cryptic here, too. Coincidence? Probably not.

As to why they’re being cryptic? It’s hard to say, but honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is partially an attempt to get a little public notice. Let’s face it– There’s a lot of soon-to-be-released buzz and beta buzz flying around the MMO scene these days. Is Trion using this little adventure as a way to get attention a bad thing? Not necessarily. While many of us are more comfortable with Trion’s usual upfront manner when it comes to announcing new features and additions, there’s nothing wrong in a little creativity and fun every once in a while.

So what does Trion have up its sleeve? The facts seem to open doors to few different scenarios.

Here’s what is safe to say we know at this point:

Three factions are coming to RIFT
Players will have to choose between their current faction and this new one
The factions will be used in PvP in some fashion

Latest update (5/14): Another post cropped up, with another avatar change for our buddy, 3 3228466 787. This one, when translated, means, “PREPARE YOURSELF.” The avatar changes seem fairly random, but so far we’ve seen a couple of different letters appear, starting with “D” and now we see an “O” in a block.

Mystery solved! (5/15): Trion announced what they’re really up to. Conquest– three-faction world PvP! Check out all the details here.

Let’s think about possibilities for a minute. Players have now began to theorize that the faction “split” will happen with Orphiel Farwind splitting away from Asha Catari, and thus the Defiant faction. The lore seems to fit here, as well as the allusion to “machine born” and the fact that this new faction seems to be more aggressive than the two we currently have. If we see this situation or one similar, it’s likely that we’ll be given a choice as to whether to stick to our current faction or join the new one. We may also get the opportunity to change factions altogether, similar to World of Warcraft’s system.

There has been evidence of a new city in development, which seems to fit the theory well. At around 2:38 in the following RIFT anniversary video, some new architectural designs are seen that may fit with this new faction:

Some of those designs were also dataminned in late 2011 by a few sources around the internet. Some of these models were seen under the name “Estrian”, which may allude to the actual name of this third faction.

It’s also possible that instead of seeing a game-wide faction split/switch feature, we’ll see one that’s limited to a particular PvP map, warzone, or environment. I really hope this isn’t the case, but it’s a possibility, given the PvP-centered nature of the evidence at hand. Upon joining the new PvP map/zone for instance, we could be forced to choose a temporary alliance. We could also see something similar to Lord of the Rings Online’s Monster system, where players are able to roll as an enemy faction under certain PvP conditions.

There’s also the possibility that instead of splitting off into three main factions, players will be able to choose a new subfaction, and each animal symbol represents something new entirely. Trion has a lot of options here, and it’ll definitely be interesting to see what they come up with. It’s also interesting to speculate about what type of PvP addition we’re receiving. Will we see a new warzone, or possibly a new open-world PvP map? What about the possibility of RvR? That would make a lot of people happy. RIFT would do very well with some open-world PvP. PvP needs some kind of boost.

If it is a faction split, this has to potential to tear guilds and friends on a shard apart. This will cause a lot of drama and unhappiness and therefor would be a very bad move. Especially with the population issues some shards have encountered.

http://www.facebook.com/SwobyJ Malcolm Swoboda

As much as I love Trion, I feel they need to be careful about this. I think that there are many elements of the game that need polishing first (like engine performance/rendering, for example).

Iferious

I Personal think this could blance the game farther. I dont think it will split any good guilds apart. I think good guilds will vote if they want to change or not. I think it will add a new twist on things. I would love to see 3 different teams in pvp it would make things alot more interesting. I hate to reference other games but WOW, SWTOR and most other Major games have 2 factions. Trion is trying to stand out and be different. Give us things the the other MMO arent. I think it’s a great move. Yes they need to make sure that they dont add it to the game it its ready and there is plunty of game conent to the new faction. Also need to make sure its ballance and fair. I really looked forward to this. Thanks Rift for always moving Forward and keeping things new and interesting.

DanCa

I love this whole thing, its almost as if we’re back in the early days and everything seems so full of potential.

However… the truth is this game is relatively low on numbers and it has, starting today with D3, a lot competition coming up.

Realistically this could be trions way of virtually MERGING the
factions to keep the game afloat. A new city, new faction, both sides
working against the bloodstorm turned into one. Honestly, if they can
back this up with a proper story and some long awaited PVP
additions/options I cant see why not. The goal is to have a game where
we can all do Dungeons, Raids etc. They did that already in WFs with the
merc system to end the que time madness and this seems like a near perfect way to get the same
thing done on the PVE front while adding a much needed PVP option.

@Iferious

Guilds will start having trouble pretty soon due to loosing people again, a-la 1.3 era. Yes a faction merge will create some problems for those, up to that point, – lucky few – that wont have trouble keeping their numbers high, but for all the rest… it might be their/our last hope

Iferious

Guilds falling a part and rebuilding is part of the game. Yes this will be a test for some guilds and Yes some will fall apart, But if your guild is truley something Great. A Group of friends and skilled players. Then no one in there right mind will walk away from that they will stay or change factions due to the vote of the majority. But I can see how some on concerned.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Rizzo/1806263396 Paul Rizzo

D3 has hype, but Skyrim had just as much. Stop assuming single players RPG will kill this game. Gw2 will present some competition, but seriously guys look at the server status right this minute and the damn game is having a stress test. Only server low are the pvp ones which is a big duh.

If Trion drops RvR prepare to see a very large DAoC crowd head to Rift in a hurry. GW2 is good and all, but it has not released, so it is mostly hype. The game has some big time flaws and people are pretending they do not exist. I am interested as hell to see how this unfolds.

All I know is Trion is giving a big F U to Blizzard, ArenaNET, Bioware, and Funcom.